


you will do extraordinary things

by wearethewitches



Series: two sides to every coin [4]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Adoption, Alex Danvers is Green Lantern, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, BAMF Alex Danvers, Childhood Trauma, Dimension Travel, F/F, Gen, Kara Danvers Needs a Hug, Multiple Selves, Multiverse, Superpowers, Young Kara, baby superheroes, we got ourselves a messed up baby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2020-12-25 00:06:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 11,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21108221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearethewitches/pseuds/wearethewitches
Summary: When Project Andromeda finds her way into another dimension, there are a cascade of events.or, a teenage AU!Kara gets adopted, Alex Danvers gets both a sister and superpowers; National City gets their first official team of teen heroes and this AU Kara just really, really needs some love. With a bonus Astra and domestic Supercat taking the reigns.[ don't ; supercat week day 8 ]





	1. Andromeda

_ East Beach, Midvale CA, Earth; November of 2006 _

She lands on a beach.

Wet sand sticks to her hands and a wave rushes up, washing over her leg and her torso. She splutters as it smashes against her face, blinking rapidly, tasting salt. _It really worked,_ she thinks, before feeling Krypto’s nose against her forehead. She raises her head, sighting soaked fur, dirtied with sand and seaweed around canine ankles.

Lara slowly gets to her feet, reaching to stroke the white fur of his head back, so her dog can see proper. Krypto barks quietly in thanks, licking her wrist as Lara smiles a fragile smile.

“We made it,” she whispers, before unlatching the World Knife from her belt. She looks down at the device, wondering at how such a simple culture could create something so dangerous. Clenching her fist, she uses her spare hand to rip at the wires in the hilt, tearing out the power source and obliterating the conduit.

Krypto barks again, head turning and Lara pauses in her destruction, following his gaze. He barks again as she sights a figure in the distance out on the water. They – she – is out on a surfboard in a black wetsuit, dark red hair pulled back in a braid.

Lara hesitates. She thinks about going – about running or flying away from this place. The World Knife has a history of leaving behind scars in the multiverse, that surge and electrify when they heal. Places like this, with only the water nearby to act as a lightning rod, aren’t ideal locations. Living beings nearby could get fried – except Lara, of course.

Looking behind her, Lara tries to locate the tear. It’s not hard, this time. It’s sparking, already in the process of healing. Maybe there will be an explosion, but it won’t be large and unless there’s a giant crab or turtle nearby, no beings will be affected by it.

“Let’s sit here for a while, Krypto,” Lara says, figuring that if this universe isn’t safe, they’ll know soon enough from who shows up to investigate the anomaly. She sits back down, uncaring of how the water rises up and down around her legs. Krypto, after a few moments, gets into the spin of things, barking and frolicking in the water, swimming and running rings around her.

But the surfer is getting closer. The woman is making her away along the beach to her. Lara forces herself to stay put, listening to the woman’s heartbeat and the way the sand shifts under her feet as she jogs along the waterfront. Krypto eventually calms down, senses telling him to stay by her side. He barks when she comes within a hundred feet.

“Hey! Are you alright?”

Lara bites her lip. The woman speeds up, coming to stand less than ten feet from her, surfboard still under her arm. She’s breathing heavily, loud and hard – and now she’s closer, Lara realises that the woman is a girl, like her. A teenager.

“I saw a flash,” she says, frowning. “And then you were there on the beach with your dog. No-one comes down here but me, this time of day.”

“What time _is_ it?” Lara can’t help but ask.

“Like, seven in the morning. Winter. The usual dog-walkers don’t come down until nine, at the earliest,” she says, eyeing her up. “What are you even wearing? Is that a wetsuit?”

Lara looks down at her uniform, shrinking into herself. She’s still wearing the skin-tight undersuit the scientists made her wear. It’s dark grey, with clips and holes, meant to hook up to monitors and machines. She didn’t even think of it – what is this girl imagining right now?

“Hey,” comes a softer voice. Lara peers through her lashes at the girl, who steps forwards and crouches down beside her, uncaring of how Krypto silently bares his teeth at her. “My name is Alex. I’m from Midvale. It’s a town about a mile and a half away, but my house is closer than that. Do you want to come with me, to see my mom and dad?”

“Where’s Midvale?” Lara questions, still so quiet. Why can’t she be louder? Why can’t she stand up for herself?

“Midvale is in California, America.”

_America._

“You’ve got an accent. Russian? I’m taking Russian in classes.”

“Kaznian.”

“Kaznian,” Alex repeats, sounding surprised. “Didn’t know we were accepting refugees from Kaznia right now. Isn’t there a war going on?”

“I don’t know,” says Lara, who has a funny feeling that this world is a lot different to her own. Most likely, because Kaznia rules the world in conjunction with the English Royal Empire. When Alex offers her a hand, face full of worry, Lara takes it.

A moment later, she hears a loud _crackle pop_ from the tear behind her.

Hand still grasping Alex’s, Lara turns, only to absorb the explosive energy that the tear expunges as it knits back together, blue light filling her vision and a shockwave pushing them all back. Lara hears Alex scream, but she doesn’t do that – she stays silent, able to hold back the pain she feels, knowing it will be over in a second.

They crash back onto the sand, the water warm against their skin. Lara still holds onto Alex’s hand, feeling a fragile pulse through her fingers, blood pumping through her veins. Her eyelids flutter and she pinpoints where the tear was located; it’s gone, now, all remnants of it vanished. Healed. Lara breathes a sigh of relief, eyes falling on Krypto – who rolls to his feet, perfectly healthy – and then to Alex.

Lara gasps, spinning onto her knees. Alex is glowing the same blue as the tear, skin fading between white and cyan. Lara reaches for her shoulders, meeting her eyes, which have changed from brown to white, her irises only visible from the edges of brown around their circumference and the black of her pupil.

“Alex,” Lara shakes her gently, frantic but still aware of her supernatural strength, “Alex, are you alright? How do you feel?”

This has never happened before. Human subjects had been exposed to the tear energy before, but they died or mutated into something else – or both. Animals took longer to change, but the simpler the anatomy, the easier for the tear energy to manipulate. Smaller animals died. Larger ones lived. Humans went mad, their brains too complex to alter that way, that fast.

“Alex,” Lara whispers, feeling guilt beyond her wildest measure. The only thing she can compare it to is- is-

“What…what happened?” Alex mumbles, blinking rapidly. The blue glow fades from her skin and she looks almost normal for a minute, before Lara catches sight of the blue energy coalescing in her palms. “Who are you?”

“Project Andromeda,” Lara replies, mouth forming the words before her brain can catch up, “Serial Number Two-Six-Alpha-Indigo-Nine-Six-Six.”

Alex’s eyes focus on her. “What?”

Lara swallows deeply, before helping Alex up to her feet, watching her stumble and look at her hands, attention turning from Lara to her…_powers._

“What the hell? What happened to me? What did you do?”

“I was a lightning rod,” Lara answers, saying what makes sense to her. That accent – that _Kaznian_ accent, the one she hates so much for replacing her old one – thickens as she speaks, so terrible and glottal, like tar on her tongue. “The tear energy went through me, into you. It’s mutating your system. You…I don’t know what it did to you. I’m so sorry.”

“What tear?” Alex barks, managing to focus on the most important part of her answer.

“The tear, I made it with the World Knife.” Lara tells her, breathing in and out, trying to calm down. “I just wanted to escape – please don’t make me go back!”

Alex looks at her with an expression of confusion and fear, biting her lip and looking to her hands. She’s quiet as the blue fades, then reappears. Lara watches it appear from her fingertips, curling around in wisps, getting larger and larger before fading again. Clearly, Alex is controlling it somehow.

“Do you feel okay?” Lara questions. “Are you feeling sick or unsteady?”

“No- no, I feel good. Strong,” says Alex, who closes her eyes briefly before shaking her head. “World Knife. Where did you come from?”

“Another reality. Do you know what the multiverse is?”

“I do. So, you’re from another Earth.”

Lara fidgets. “Technically. Technically, I am from another Krypton – but I came to Earth when I was younger. My planet-”

“Died.”

Lara jerks, eyes widening. Alex stares at her in surprise. “You know about Krypton?”

“Doesn’t everybody?” Alex asks rhetorically. “Superwoman came from Krypton. She’s been around, saving cities and the world since ninety-eight. I was nine when she appeared.”

“Superwoman,” Lara repeats. “She is…Kryptonian. Like me.”

To Lara, the maths is easy. She spent so many years in the Phantom Zone, asleep, drifting – if she had arrived on time, she would be an adult by nineteen ninety-eight. If science is the same, if Kryptonian biology ensures that under a yellow star, they gain powers…

“Does she look like me?”

Alex only seems a little surprised by her question. She squints at Lara, as if trying to match her memories of the two. “I mean…a bit. You’ve got darker hair than her, but that might be the water.”

“My hair isn’t wet,” Lara replies, before falling silent. She catches sight of Alex’s surfboard behind her, snapped in half. She winces. Alex follows her gaze, making a noise of pain at the sight.

“No – come on! That’s my second board this year!” She rushes over, picking up the two pieces and then the previously-hidden centreboard, which had obviously been detached as well. Lara reaches down to pick up Krypto, at the last moment grabbing the dismantled World Knife and throwing it far out to sea, trusting the rising tide to wash away the smaller parts.

The compact power source, however, she keeps.

“My mom and dad are going to kill me,” Alex groans. “I’ll never get the trophy, now.”

Curious, Lara asks, “What trophy?”

“Surfing. Midvale has an early spring competition, before the winter season completely dies down. This is the first time my mom’s let me try out, but my board broke in the autumn…my dad got me this one. When my mom heard, she said if it happened again, I could forget about it.”

“Waves that are hard enough to snap boards…” Lara trails off, not knowing how a surfboard could be snapped. Maybe if it was caught on the sand below – but then, where would Alex be, if that happened? Underwater, drowning, perhaps. Lara finds herself agreeing with Alex’s mother.

“We should go to my house,” Alex says, gathering her board up in pieces. Lara nods in agreement, when she hears an odd sound on the wind. Alex starts to walk back up the beach, Krypto letting out a low growl as Lara searches the sky on instinct. Alex pauses, looking back at them. “What is it?”

“I can hear something,” Lara says, eyes catching on something barely visible, high up in the morning sky. The sun blocks it out – she can’t see properly, even if she squints.

“Andy, what’s going on?”

For a moment, Lara wonders who she’s talking to, before remembering that she called herself Project Andromeda. Blinking at her, Lara is briefly stunned at being given a nickname, even if it’s not based on her ‘real’ name.

_Andy. I like that._

“What’s up?” Alex asks, putting her board pieces down, except her broken centrepiece. Holding it like a weapon, she looks up and down the beach, not looking up. Lara recalls a piece of trivia in her Human Behaviour and Analysis class, in her old universe: Humans don’t look up.

“It is a ship, I think,” Lara tells her, voice harder – louder. She struggles not to flinch at her own behaviour, adrenaline surging through her system, fists clenching and her fighting instincts coming to the fore. Alex is a liability – she has no clear combat abilities and only just received a set of superpowers, superpowers she has already seemed to have forgotten she has.

The noise – a whistling, a _hum_ of an alien aircraft – gets closer, the water rippling underneath it. Lara makes a split-second decision, eyes glowing red as she uses laser-vision to shoot it down. In an instant, the shielding crackles, flickering and breaking. She hears Alex gasp as the ship – a one-man piloted craft, dark green with triangular windows, _I know that model_ – veers sharply to the left, smoking and sparking orange.

“Krypto!” Lara barks, watching her companion fly up into the air, following it and using laser-vision generously as the ship circles them, keeping them in the eye of its own personal bubble. “Alex – use your powers, figure out how they work!”

“What are we doing? Why did you shoot it?” Alex instead asks, crying out as Krypto lasers some kind of engine, causing it to go spinning sideways, dropping down onto the sand and rolling upside-down, burrowing into the ground. “What if it’s a friendly?”

“What kind of friendly uses shields?” Lara questions, storming forwards and tearing off the window. Inside, a red-skinned, bipedal alien with four arms coughs violently. Lara can see where some kind of metal has torn through his torso, through the green and white of his uniform. He’s clearly bleeding out, white gloves covered in yellow fluid. “Who are you?”

“Who…are…_you?_” they ask in return. Lara reaches into the cockpit, snapping the restraints on their chair to bring them outside of it. They cry out, but Lara ignores it – only reacting when Alex grabs her arm.

“What are you doing? She’s _hurt,_ Andy. You need to be careful.”

“I’ll be careful when they start answering my questions,” Lara says stiffly, looking back at the being with calculating eyes. She recites Kaznian interrogation procedure in her head, supplemented with information from the Englishmen’s interrogation techniques. “Who are you?” she asks, “What were you doing here today?”

The being coughs, letting out a wheeze of pain. A ring on their hand glows green and they stay silent. Lara goes to laser their knee, when Alex tugs on her arm.

“Andy! Don’t! You’re scaring me, right now – stop this. Are you always this horrible?”

Lara jerks, “I’m not horrible!”

“You’re acting like it!” Alex snaps back, glaring balefully. Lara withers under her stare, reminded too much of-

The being chuckles, letting out another groan. “What’s your name, Human?”

“Human?” Alex mutters, swallowing. “Alex. Alexandra Danvers. Why? Who are you?”

Ignoring Lara, the being raises their arm – the same arm with their glowing, green ring. On it, there’s the symbol of the Green Lanterns and suddenly, Lara is horrified at herself.

“No!” she exclaims, dropping to her knees. “No, no, I’m sorry, I’m sorry – I didn’t know, I didn’t realise!”

The being’s eyes drift to her. “Peace, daughter of Krypton. Find your kin. They will guide you.”

Lara’s eyes fill with tears, looking at the shard in the Lantern’s abdomen and the downed ship. _What have I done?_

“Alexandra Danvers,” the Lantern intones, “Take the ring.”

Silent, Alex takes the Lantern’s hand, grasping the ring. She takes it from them, holding it gently.

“Recite after me: _In brightest day, in blackest night._”

“In- In brightest day, in blackest night.”

“_No evil shall escape my sight._”

“No evil shall escape my sight.”

Lara, on her knees, watches in stricken awe as Alex takes the pledge, reciting the Oath of the Green Lanterns. She can’t know what she’s saying – she doesn’t. Her white eyes are wide and confused, but her voice is strong. The dying wish of the Lantern is clear.

Alex will take the Oath.

“_Let those who worship evil’s might._”

“Let those who worship evil’s might.”

“_Beware my power..._”

“Beware my power.”

The Lantern smiles, reaching to put the ring on Alex’s finger. “_Green Lantern’s light._”

“Green Lantern’s light!” Alex repeats with a shock of enthusiasm, before the ring flashes bright on her finger. Lara sees in the flash how the blue energy under Alex’s skin bursts, flares – going from blue to green, changing her once more. It’s a powerful sight and Lara has to look away, until finally, it’s over.

When she looks back, the Lantern is dead and Alex has taken their place. Her red hair is still braided back, falling down over her back. The Green Lantern uniform looks good on her, with black arms and legs, a green torso, domino mask and boots, white gloves up to her elbows and the symbol of the Green Lanterns in white, like her gloves, up to her elbows. On her finger, the Power Ring glows green, Alex’s powers crackling, staining the Oan energy blue. The effect is beautiful – and deadly.

“…I feel like I’ve done something big,” says Alex. Lara nods, mute, Krypto finally returning to her side with a whine and a nudge. Alex looks between the ship and the deceased Lantern, before turning on Lara. “What just happened?”

“You became a Green Lantern,” Lara says, the words sticking in her throat. “A protector of the universe. This sector of the universe, to be precise. I don’t know what this sector number is. You- you’ll need to find the Lantern. It’s probably inside the ship.”

“Alright,” Alex says, practically running away from the dead body towards the ship, scouring it for clues. Lara stays behind, shuffling closer to the body of the dead Green Lantern. This is her fault. They chose Alex as their successor, but Lara doubts it would have happened that way normally. Or maybe it does. Maybe Lanterns get attacked and those that help defend them in their final hours are honoured this way.

Lara wishes Aunt Astra had told her more, before she died.

Reaching over, she closes their eyes and takes the shard out of their torso, pressing their multiple arms over their chest. Lara has no idea how to deal with this. This being a dead body. The Kaznians always took aliens into custody, dead or alive, bringing Lara back to her cell immediately.

She hears a communicator pinging inside the ship, Alex answering hesitantly. When she calls the Green Lantern’s death _an accident,_ Lara stops trying to contain her guilt, tearing up and rubbing furiously at her face. She has to face the facts: she murdered someone of her own free will. This wasn’t the Kaznians telling her what to do – this wasn’t being lent out to the Englishmen as a weapon.

This was murder. Plain and simple. They didn’t even fight back.

Burrowing her head in Krypto’s first, Lara waits for judgement.


	2. Alex

_ East Beach, Midvale CA, Earth; November of 2006 _

Fiddling with the wires of the communicator, Alex examines her options. Outside the ship – her ship, now – is a Kryptonian dimension-hopper, a super-powered dog and a dead body. There’s also the ship itself to consider, along with her blue powers and her…_Green Lantern_ powers.

_Examine what you know,_ she imagines her mother’s voice, strict but full of caring. Alex does that. Andy clearly has some kind of screw loose, to be so violent out of the blue. When she saw her on the beach, Alex thought she’d been attacked and dumped, or maybe escaped some kind of prison. In a way, it seems the latter is true, here. She’s also volatile and dangerous, with a super side-kick ready to do whatever it likes on her command.

The dog itself is unbelievable. At first glance, it looks like a normal dog, an American Eskimo dog to be exact. Alex knows this, because Josie used to have one, before it got run over after chasing a leaf onto the highway. It was a really stupid dog. In comparison, Andy’s dog – _she called it ‘Krypto’ _– is hyper-aware of its surroundings. It doesn’t run away from Andy and comforts her when she needs comforting. The fact that is could laser Alex to death with a single glare is disconcerting.

_Keep the two of them together,_ Alex thinks to herself, her first mandate of the day. She hopes that the dog doesn’t have _all_ of a Kryptonian-on-Earth’s superpowers, but she _did_ see him flying, earlier. Alex shudders at the thought of how he could have gotten said powers. There really isn’t any good way he could have, outside of being an alien himself.

Then there’s the dead body. Now, _that’s_ horrible to think about. Alex can barely distinguish the fact that the person is _dead_, not when they look like they’re sleeping there on the sand, not when they had her recite a poem and put a green, cosmic ring on her finger.

Alex rubs her forehead, feeling a migraine coming on. _That makes us sound married. No offence, but I don’t want to marry an alien._

The Green Lantern on the communicator called them something like ‘Azvarof’ and didn’t introduce themselves, either, but Alex noticed the Canadian accent. If they aren’t Human too, she’ll eat her dad’s Christmas meatloaf this year and actually swallow it.

Anyway – they said to put Azvarof in the ship and to hide it, if they can. He knows where Azvarof was heading, as the_ ‘rip in space’_ was pretty noticeable to their sensors; he’ll deal with things and find Alex later, when things have calmed down. For now, she’s meant to get on with her life, but keep an eye out for anything that came through the tear.

After hanging up, Alex decided she didn’t agree with that plan, which is why she’s detached the communications system so she can take it home. She’s training to be a doctor, but she’s always had an interest in electronics and bio-tech – and the system wasn’t that hard to dismantle. It bothers her as well that the guy – sorry, the _other Green Lantern_ – hadn’t asked her what else happened. Shouldn’t there be a protocol, here? He didn’t even question who Azvarof made his successor.

_Maybe he wants to retrieve the Power Ring,_ she figures quietly, eyes drifting to what she thinks must be the ‘Lantern’ that Andy was talking about. That the girl is called ‘Project Andromeda’ still pisses her off. That she had a _serial number_ is even worse.

“Andy,” she barks, looking out of the cockpit to find her again. Andy flinches, looking her way through a curtain of dark blonde hair. Alex motions her to come closer, watching as the alien girl makes her way over, brushing off the sand from her weird jumpsuit. Alex motions to the bright green Lantern the size of a basketball. It’s not exactly conspicuous – but she needs to be sure. “Is that it?”

She watches Andy inspect the contents of the ship, nodding shortly. Her hand reaches out to a nearby screen that flickers on and off, showing a star chart of some kind. Alex had seen it use an alien language before, but as soon as she sat down, the symbols changed into Earth numerals. When Andy touches the chart, they change to another alien language.

“Sector Two-Eight-Fourteen. That’s this part of the Galaxy…it’s _huge,_” she says, sounding a little awed. “I had no idea…Krypton only had one Green Lantern and they mostly spent their time on Daxam, freeing slaves. They had a recruit on probation who I met, once. They were a Daxammite. I think they were uncomfortable, visiting…visiting Krypton.”

“Should I dismantle that, too?” Alex questions, readying herself to do just that. Andy looks at the device on her lap in surprise. “What?” Alex raises an eyebrow. “He didn’t even ask if I was the new Green Lantern. He just assumed his partner crashed. I’m not going to pass up on the chance to have a look at this shit.”

Andy nods hesitantly, before running a hand through her hair. “Go for it. I’ll hide the ship in a dune, once you’re done. I just…I just need to go get something I threw away.”

“Your World Knife?” asks Alex, watching Andy smile sheepishly and nod, before she speeds away. Alex turns back to the star chart – a guidance system, perhaps?

When she’s done, Alex climbs out of the ship with her electronics and the Lantern, settling fifty feet away with the bits of her board. She watches Andy move the ship closer to the edge of the beach, using some kind of super breathing technique to push a whole pile of sand on top of it. The pile afterwards doesn’t look natural, but it’s better than leaving the spaceship and Azvarof’s body for the seagulls to eat and the military to find.

“This way,” Alex directs Andy, when she returns to her side. The other girl nods, collecting Alex’s board for her, still dripping from her dunk into the sea. The remnants of her World Knife are stuffed in the large pockets of her jumpsuit and in the privacy of her own head, Alex wonders if it’s unique or not.

Because if it’s not, they might have a problem.

Her mother greets them with a raised eyebrow when they arrive, far from suspicious – up until she sees Alex’s board under Andy’s arm. Of _course_ it’s the board that gets her attention and not the supremely nerdy get-up Alex is wearing, instead of her wetsuit.

“Alexandra…”

“Funnily enough, I wasn’t even in the water when it happened,” replies Alex, attempting to keep a level head. Reaching up to touch her domino mask – she’d seen her reflection on the inside of the ship, even if she doesn’t feel it on her face – Alex peels it off, not expecting her Power Ring to flash and change her outfit again, returning her to her wetsuit right in front of her mother.

Eliza stares.

Andy struggles to contain her giggles.

“So…it turns out I’m something called the Green Lantern?” Alex cringes. The next thing she knows, she’s sat at the dining room table with Andy, the both of them being treated like tiny kids. Andy, who hasn’t even been introduced, looks two seconds away from turning into a puddle of goo from embarrassment.

Jeremiah Danvers, Alex’s father, is clearly fascinated by them both – Alex has had to demonstrate her magical transformation a few more times since being chivvied inside.

“And you’re from another dimension of the multiverse,” he finishes, getting a nod from Andy. Eliza mutters at him and Jeremiah sits up, trying and failing to hide a smile. “Alright. We can get through this. You said that Azvarof’s partner is coming here to handle his affairs. That’s one thing we don’t need to worry about.”

“Andy might be related to Superwoman,” Alex blurts out, not wanting to have to explain any more of the weird and wonderful stuff that has happened to her today.

“Alex,” Eliza begins to scold. “She’s from another dimension, she can’t-”

“Kara Zor-El.”

Silence falls in the Danvers household. Alex looks to Andy, who’s staring at the wooden grains of the table. Her hair has fallen in front of her face again, so Alex can’t really see her expression past the slumping of her shoulders and her defeated tone of voice.

“I think her name is Kara Zor-El.” Andy says lowly. “It was mine, once. They changed it to Lara, because they misheard me when I introduced myself. I don’t mind Lara – I don’t mind Andy, either.” Andy – _Lara? Is that her real name?_ – looks to Alex, teeth chewing on her bottom lip. “I’ve never had a nickname, before. Project Andromeda was my title and I- and I liked it, despite what it was worth. Lara was my aunt’s name, not mine. Andromeda…it’s a galaxy that you named, here on Earth- or there, rather. I mean, they named it Andromeda in my old-”

“Andromeda is a galaxy here, too,” Alex says quietly. She processes what she’s been told and asks, “Do you want to be called Kara, again?”

The other girl shakes her head. “No,” she says, sounding strong for once. She reaches for Alex’s hand, squeezing it and meeting her eyes. “I’m not Kara Zor-El, here. That belongs to _her_ – to Superwoman. I like how you call me Andy.”

The surge of protectiveness takes Alex off-guard. Holy shit. This girl, _really._ Alex squeezes back as tight as she can, reaching to wrap and arm around her. Andy makes a startled noise and Alex wonders how long it’s been since she’s been hugged.

“Hey, Andy. Welcome to Earth,” she says, feeling Andy’s hesitant arms wrap around her waist. Out of the corner of her eyes, she sees her parents silently sharing a _look_, one that speaks a hundred words.

Eventually pulling away – feeling Andy try to hold on before going slack, letting Alex loose – she declares, “We’ll wonder about this Green Lantern stuff later. Do you want to go see her, Andy?”

Andy’s eyes widen. “You mean-”

“Superwoman. Kara Zor-El. Cat Grant’s wife.” Alex names her, surprised at how Andy makes a confused _huh_ noise in confusion. “Wait, you’ve heard of Cat Grant?”

“She was part of the Resistance Against the Supreme Authorities.”

Alex blinks. “Your world was like, totally totalitarian, wasn’t it?”

Andy cocks her head, shrugging. “Yeah.”

“Superwoman is in National City,” Jeremiah cuts in, looking at Andy in concern. “It’ll be difficult for you to get in contact with her, unless you go through the DEO.”

“What’s that?”

“Department for Extranormal Operations,” explains Alex, “Used to be an alien round-up organisation, bad guys, but then they were taken over by the aliens they were hunting. It’s an alien refugee oriented and crisis-related independent organisation, now. They answer to an international board, rather than just Congress. Superwoman’s known to run with them.”

“To be specific, she gets a salary from them and is their first and foremost representative, after the General,” her father states, which is…kind of specific. Alex frowns at him, wondering how he knows. Jeremiah catches her glance and gives her a small smile, before looking back to Andy. “I wouldn’t be surprised if, like the Lanterns, they detected the surge of your arrival.”

Alex has a eureka moment. “What if we go to Cat Grant instead?”

Eliza hums lowly, head tilting, “It could work, but you’d have to get to her in the first place.”

“Green Lanterns can fly,” Andy then decides to inform them. Alex’s eyes go wide. “We could fly there.”

“That’s…that’s not what I meant,” her mother said, sounding faint. Alex looks at her Power Ring, wondering what sorts of things she can do. “Alex-”

“Andy,” Jeremiah interrupts, voice a touch louder than usual, cutting off his wife. “What Eliza is referring to is getting past security to see her. Guards, security camera, other things – Cat Grant is the CEO of CatCo Worldwide Media, working in TV, radio and news-casting. She has a skyscraper in National City, which is the base of her operations and her original set-up. Alex went there on a school trip, once.”

Andy looks to Alex. “You did?”

“Yeah – part of the school paper in high school,” Alex says, slightly uncomfortable at the mention of her achievements. Only four people on the sixteen-person newspaper got to go, based on grades and she knows her parents like to boast. “It’s not important,” she says hastily.

“Alex is taking college courses from home, this year,” her mother then decides to say, proud. Alex cringes, but Andy smiles.

“Well done!”

Alex flushes, fiddling with her Power Ring. “Yeah, whatever.”

“Alex is shy,” Jeremiah chuckles. “Let’s not embarrass her any more than we already have. Andy – are you sure you’d like to connect with your other self? I’ve got contacts. I could always arrange matters, so you could settle wherever you like.”

Alex raises her eyebrows, surprised her dad has the ability to do that kind of stuff. She thought he was just a scientist – he’s not exactly social, either, always focused on work.

But Andy shakes her head, looking normal instead of afraid. She smiles. “No. I’m fine. I’d like to meet her.”

“Alright, then,” Jeremiah replies, before Eliza clears her throat.

“Alex, you have essays to write.”

“But Mom-” Alex starts, wanting to hang out with Andy, ask her about her universe – maybe even practice with her Power Ring.

Eliza cuts her off. “No buts, young lady. We have a few more questions for Andy, but you can go up to your room and get changed. I want to see the second draft of your Japanese essay before lunchtime.”

Grumbling under her breath, Alex gets up, sending one last look to Andy. Her face is impassable, however, neither sympathetic nor smug. She does wave, however and Alex puffs a bit of hair up away from her face, rolling her eyes as she swaggers off.

As she goes, she looks to the Power Ring on her finger.

_Japanese can wait. I want to know what this thing does._

Smiling, Alex makes her way upstairs, ready to start her newest experiment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ah, the irony - and what is ironic? well, it's not quite a spoiler, but i'll leave it up to y'all to guess. virtual cookies to commenters who get it right.
> 
> anyway, back to your regular dose of the two sides 'verse. any questions, please ask away!
> 
> for general danvers week, it's a definite yes to participating and including it in this 'verse; and i've signed up for the supergirl secret santa (though that probably won't be part of this 'verse, bc as much as i would like to link something like that in, it's not fair to the recipient to have to read over 30k+ of work just to understand their own present).


	3. Kara

_ National City Park, National City, Earth; July of 2007 _

Sometimes, Kara is very grateful that she gets days off.

On the edge of her hearing, she can make out sounds of a super-fight going on in the desert east of National City and happily, she knows that it’s being taken care of and that her friends have back-up, if they need it. So, rather than focus on it and break her mood, Kara slides the lead mesh down either side of her headphones to cover her ears, blocking out anything further than a hundred feet away.

Carter, tilting his head to the wind, asks her, “When can I get some of those?”

“When your powers stop getting stronger,” Kara replies in a matter-of-fact way. She peers at him under her lashes, craning her neck to see him from her position on the blanket. “How’s the immersion therapy helping?”

Her son grimaces. “Not much. Everything’s just getting louder and louder, _Ieiu._ How do I turn it down?”

“You aren’t a machine, Carter,” Kara twists onto her front, leaning on her chin. Above, the sun beats down harshly – and despite that, hundreds of people surround them in National City Park. “It’s a state of mind. You pick what you focus on.”

“Can we go home?”

Kara looks at her watch, squinting under the glare on glass. “It’s ten to three. We’ll go home after the hours up.”

Carter sighs, rubbing at his temples. A passer-by slows, asking, “Your head okay, kid? It’s hot out. Careful you’re not getting sunstroke.”

“I’m fine actually, but thank-you for asking,” he says diplomatically, running a hand through his hair before tapping their cooler full of water. “And we’ve got enough water for ten people.”

The stranger grins, giving Carter a thumbs up before moving on. Kara glances at the skin of her arms, wondering whether it’s just a Human thing to get freckles. Kara can’t remember ever having any on Krypton – but then again, any danger the sun posed would be mitigated by the dome encasing Argo City, freckle-inducing radiation included.

_That’s if the Codex didn’t get rid of freckles altogether, _Kara muses, looking at Carter. He gets freckles occasionally and he’s picking up quite the tan from the hours they’ve spent outside today.

“What do you think your mom’s doing?” Kara questions him. Carter shrugs.

“They have air-conditioning at the office. She’s fine – do you think she’s wearing her sunglasses, though?”

Kara laughs. “Did you miss the ten entire minutes it took for Cat to choose them in the first place? Of course, she’s wearing them!”

Cat, as in Cat Grant, is Kara’s wife and the other mother of their son, Carter. A diligent worker, she doesn’t give herself many days off – even on the hottest day of the year. She also has a penchant for drama and _making an impression,_ as she likes to call it.

Kara imagines what it would be like if Cat was here with them. Undoubtedly, there’d be a lot more chatter, probably concerning Carter’s appalling lack of sunscreen and the fact that Kara is wearing a backless halter neck shirt, attached to silk shorts. The first would be because she cares, but the second would be because she’s possessive. Kara likes to think she’s making up for all the years they weren’t together.

A _bleep_ comes from Carter’s phone and he doesn’t quite take it out of his bag, not wanting it to overheat in the sun. He hums. “Kal-El’s coming over. He took the bus.”

“Really?” Kara queries, not quite getting it. Kal-El has superpowers, like them – he doesn’t need to use the bus, unless he’s pretending to be Human. “Why?”

“Don’t know, but-” Carter stops speaking, sitting up abruptly. His head tilts like he’s focusing in on something, his brow furrowing. “Huh?”

Kara reaches up to her headphones, sliding the lead back up. Immediately, she’s blinking away the buzz in her head created by a city’s worth of noise. “What did you hear?” she asks, trying to pinpoint what alarmed her son so much.

“Kal-El,” he says shortly. Kara frowns. Kal-E’s heartbeat is like a hummingbird’s – and according to her ears, he’s still another twenty blocks away. But Carter repeats himself. “Kal-El,” he says, getting up on one knee, eyes roaming the park.

“Carter, what are you trying to find?”

“Who, more like,” Carter replies in a furious manner. Then, in Kryptonian he says, “_Whoever you are, I can hear you._”

Kara doesn’t really mean to hear the reply, however it’s her instinct to focus on Kryptonian when she hears it and hear it, she does.

“_Where are you? I’m trying to find Kara Zor-El and her wife._”

Mouth falling open, Kara completely takes off her headphones, standing up on their beach blanket. Her hair is falling out it’s bun and she hears the _crackle_ of something snapping beneath her foot – a glance downwards sees her sunglasses a pile of plastic – as she scans the crowd. No-one stands out. Humans, aliens…National City is peaceful. Even the fight in the desert has ended.

“_I see you,_” she hears the voice again, completely narrowing her focus to a teenage girl. Under her ribs, her heart hammers at the same speed as Kal-El’s – no, _faster,_ like she’s excited or scared or something else entirely. Kara hears the gasp she gives, sees her lungs expand as she stares, wide-eyed at Kara by the lake. For a few moments, Kara has no idea who she’s looking at.

Because she looks like _Kara._

Her hair isn’t white-blonde and her eyes are a lighter blue than her own, but other than that, she’s a carbon copy of what looks like Kara at seventeen. When Kara looks closer, she sees her trembling and the way she clenches her fists in an attempt to calm her nerves. At her side is a red-headed girl, barely much older than her, with a white-furred dog at her feet.

Almost mindlessly, Kara lifts her hand, motioning them over. Her lookalike takes the girl’s hand – _and is that a Power Ring? Rao, what is going on?_ – and begins leading her over.

“_It’s her, Alex!_”

“_Woah, slow down, slow down – I’m going to trip!_”

“_Can I carry you then, if you’re going to be so slow?_”

“_I’m not slow, you’re just super fast-_”

“Who are they, _Ieiu?_” Carter asks, tone moderate. Kara wonders for a second why he isn’t freaking out, just like her, but then she realises that Carter wouldn’t know. He’s turning fifteen this year and he’s her son – he doesn’t know what she looked like at that age.

Sitting down on the blanket, Kara reaches to gather the shards of her broken sunglasses, not knowing what to say. _She’s my clone. She looks like a teenaged version of me._ What can she say?

At her side, Carter sits down, but he’s restless. Kal-El is less than fifteen blocks away from the park and the girls are getting closer and closer, picking their way past encampments and sunbathers, edging past children playing football in close quarters and another family barbequing ribs. Kara hears when the young version of her stops, whispering, _what is that, Alex?_ When Alex whispers, _that’s ice-cream, you had it at my house last night after dinner, this is just a smaller version_, Kara’s mind starts drifting to scarier options.

What if she really is a clone? What if she’s an experiment, locked away? What if Kara slept with someone and knocked _them_ up, rather than the other way around? Kara loves her children, but if she really does have another one, she _will_ have the DEO track all her one-night stands down, men included.

“Kal-El texted again,” Carter says, as if she didn’t hear the buzz. “What do you want me to tell him?”

“Nothing. He’ll find us, eventually,” Kara says, feeling anxious. The girls are less than a hundred feet away and ‘Alex’ is peering at them, now, clearly recognising her; seeing as she has the younger version to compare right beside her, it can’t be hard.

“Hi,” Kara whispers.

The younger Kara bites her lip, then waves. Kara waves back and lets her heartbeat steady itself. When the girls finally make it to them, the younger Kara wastes no time before sitting down on the blanket, Kara moving her feet so she can sit, the dog she saw before immediately climbing into her copy’s lap without hesitation. But behind her, Alex waits hesitantly, as if she doesn’t know whether she’s invited to the party – though, there is a certain awe to her expression that Kara recognises, beneath it all.

“Who are you?” the younger Kara asks Carter. The teenage boy blinks at her.

“Really? You don’t know?”

“Carter Grant,” Alex answers, clearly nervous.

“Carter Lee, actually,” corrects Kara, eyeing her up and making her decision. Shoving Carter slightly, she gestures to the last square of the blanket, Carter quick to move his bag out of the way. “You can sit. We don’t mind.”

Cross-legged, the two Kara’s give Alex identical smiles.

Alex sits.

“Do you want to explain to us who you are and what you want?” Kara asks her younger copy politely. She watches her chew on her lip again, glancing at the nearby crowds. Kara follows her line of thinking. “Ignore them. No-one can really, properly eavesdrop when it’s this busy. At worst, they think you’re a nutcase – at best, they think you’re the new Supergirl.”

“Superwoman,” she mutters, stroking her dog’s fur. Kara notes how she’s wearing jeans. Seeing as how Alex is in shorts and a tank, she assumes that something else is hinky. Her instincts haven’t led her wrong before, so Kara doesn’t start ignoring them now.

“Why are you wearing trousers?” she asks, instead of waiting for her to answer her first question.

Her copy pauses, eyebrows knitting together. “I- I don’t like the idea of shorts. Or skirts. I have scars from surgical implants and experiments they did on me.”

Kara never expected that on the hottest day of the year, her blood could run cold.

“I’m from another world,” her copy explains, which, _oh-_ “so I’m Kara Zor-El, too. But that’s your name, not mine. Alex calls me Andy, for my- my…”

“They called her Project Andromeda,” Alex interrupts, reaching out for the younger Kara’s arm – for _Andy’s_ arm. Kara feels like her whole body has gone numb. “She’s got a barcode, too. I hated it the moment I heard it, so I called her Andy. They called her Lara, too, in her old universe, ‘cause they got her name wrong when she first crash-landed.”

“I was late,” Andy says quietly, peering at Carter. “My pod got knocked into the Phantom Zone and I only got out when Brainiac Eight hacked my flight-path. I was asleep for over a decade.”

“That’s what happened to Kal-El,” Kara murmurs, hearing her youngest zipping through the park, stopping when he sees friends and people he knows, from heroing. He’s so much more sociable, now he has the chance to show off his true nature – hiding takes it’s toll and National City is brighter for their great reveal in ’03.

“The opposite happened, with me.” Andy tells her and there is something to her voice, something small and scared, that makes Kara focus on her.

She’s young and terrified. Her dog provides her comfort and Alex – whoever she is – is giving her support and telling her things like what ice-cream is. This Kara, _Andy_, has escaped some kind of hell-world.

(Kara does not know how right she is.)

“My Kal-El was taken in by the Kaznians, one of the first to be found. There were others, before him, but he was just- he was just a little boy. They raised him to be a weapon,” Andy says, a dark expression forming across her face like memory. “They called him Doomsday.”

A shudder runs down Kara’s back, eyes falling on her son as he walks up to them, blinking stupidly at the sight of the full blanket. His face screws up into a pout and Kara imagines him angry – imagines him using his powers for evil, being called _Doomsday_ by Humans who didn’t know better. Her son is a good boy.

Reaching for him, Kara doesn’t give Kal-El a chance to ask questions, bundling him into her lap as she attempts not to completely freak out on everyone. Face impassive, she bundles the eleven year old against her, arms locking him in place.

“_Ieiu_, what’s going on? Who’s the girl? Wait – is that a _dog?_ Can I stroke him?” Kal-El’s questions are like a rainstorm, fast and almost simultaneous. Andy looks startled at the sight of him, leaning back at his enthusiasm.

“Kid, shush,” Carter rolls his eyes and when Kal-El goes to complain, Kara pokes him.

“Hey, you need to be quiet. This is important. Andy here is from another universe – she’s me, if my pod came late like yours and you arrived on time.”

Kal-El takes a second to absorb this question. Kara is far from surprised when he asks, “What about the dog?”

“…this is Krypto. He’s like us,” Andy says quietly, stroking him gently. The white-furred canine climbs her slightly, leaning on two legs to lick her face. Andy smiles wide for the first time, scrubbing at his head and behind his ears. “Krypto’s a good dog, aren’t you, buddy?”

“Can I pet him? I _love _dogs!”

“Hold up, what do you mean, ‘like us’?” Carter interrupts and Krypto looks his way.

His eyes glow red.

“Rao on a piece of bread!” Kal-El exclaims, his turn of phrase making Kara look at him in bewilderment. “He’s a _super dog_. A _super_ dog! _Ieiu_, Krypto is a _super_ dog and- and that’s why he’s called Krypto, right? Did you get to name him?”

“I, uh,” Andy blinks at Kal-El’s enthusiasm once more, clearly trying to roll with it. “Yeah. I named him, but only because he does what I say. They put a chip in his head so he’d only listen to my voice because I was the only one who could train him with his flight and super-strength – but when they took the chip out, he still only listened to me. It was kind of a failure on their part. They couldn’t take him away from me without facing _both_ our wraths.”

“Honey,” Kara can’t help but say, voice drenched in empathy. She reaches out, offering her hand. Andy hesitates before taking it, confused when Kara squeezes it. “I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that.”

It’s like she’s been hit over the head. Andy stares at her, mouth opening and closing.

Kal-El, perhaps sensing that his mother is about to go into full-on mother bear mode, slides out of her loosening hold, rolling out onto the grass dramatically. If the situation weren’t so serious, Kara is sure he would be exclaiming _I’m free!_

“Can Krypto be put to the side for a second?” Kara asks, still holding Andy’s hand. When she gets a nod, a short command to Krypto having him sat on the blanket, Kara wastes no time in drawing Andy into a Kryptonian-strength hug. Andy squeaks, but hugs back.

“_I haven’t had a hug like this since Astra died,_” says Andy, voice muffled against Kara’s shoulder. Unable to stop from tensing, Kara tries to disguise it as a tighter hug; Andy seems to fall for it.

_Astra is dead in her universe._

“Do you have anywhere to stay?” Kara asks her, thinking of how her art corner or maybe even Cat’s study on the indoor balcony could be redecorated as a spare bedroom. “Do you want to stay with me and my family?”

Andy reluctantly pulls away, discreetly wiping at her eyes. “Alex and her family live in Midvale. I- I’ve been staying with them a while, now.”

“She can stay as long as she wants, Mom said,” Alex interjects.

“Good – right now, we only have a couch. Surprisingly, not many penthouses in National City are meant for more than two adults, so we’ll have to do some redecorating,” says Kara lightly, the invitation unsaid but clear. Andy’s eyes pool with tears at the offer and Kara smiles at her, thankful she knows there’s a place for her.

“So, who are you?” Kal-El asks Alex, the group having forgotten to introduce her alongside Andy.

She stretches out her hand – the one with the Power Ring on it, Kara sees. “Danvers,” she says, “Alex Danvers. I met Andy last November, when she first came through.”

“You’re a Green Lantern,” Kara says in a calm tone, watching Alex’s eyes widen slightly, before she straightens and nods, silent but proud. She shakes her hand and nods in respect. “An honour to meet you.”

“It’s- it’s an honour to meet you, too,” Alex stutters. Kara grins at her.

“I’ve not seen you flying about. Are you still just a recruit?”

“Uh- I mean, sort of. Hal Jordan thinks- actually,” Alex shakes her head. “Never mind that. I’m self-taught and Andy’s teaching me how to fight. I’m going to med school, here in National City in fall.”

“Awesome,” Kara cheers, glancing to Andy. “What about you? Staying with Alex’s parents?”

Andy smiles at Alex, proclaiming, “I’m staying with my sister. We’re getting an apartment together in the city.”

“I’m med and bio-chem; she’s going to school for art – Andy got an internship at CatCo, starting in January.”

Kara’s eyes widen. “What?”

Andy bites her lip, sheepish. Kara recognises her expression well enough, having seen it in photos and mirrors. It weirds her out a bit, how they have the same mannerisms and looks. Well, nearly the same looks. Kara figures that perhaps travelling through space might have affected her a bit more than her pod said – or maybe vice versa, the Phantom Zone changing Andy. Considering how the Phantom Zone freezes people in time, however, it seems unlikely.

“My plan was to see how your wife reacted, if we ever met,” Andy tells her. “But I want to know what I’m doing, so…school.” She shrugs her shoulders, while Carter guwaffs.

“Are you kidding? Mom would be _so_ pissed. The last time she hung out with a kid that looked like _Ieiu_, it ended up being her secret son.”

Kara side-eyes him.

Snickering, Kal-El informs the surprised Alex and Andy, “He’s talking about himself! _Ieiu_ didn’t tell Mom he was hers until she figured it out herself.”

“Oh,” Kara hears Andy whisper, staring at Carter. Kara supposes it’s a little weird – biologically, Andy is as much Carter’s mother as Kara. Kara wrinkles her nose.

_Now I get why some mothers don’t let the bio-dads interact with their kids. I feel…possessive._

Unaware of their mother’s inner turmoil, Carter ribs Andy, playfully shoving at her knee. “You _are_ my father,” he mocks, which Andy seems to actually get, thankfully.

“…_nooooooooooo,_” she eventually replies in a mock whisper-shout, making Carter grin widely at her at her rendition of Luke’s infamous answer to Carter’s modified Darth Vader. Kara almost sighs in contentment, recognising Cat’s smile on his face.

“You’re cool,” Kal-El tells her, making Andy startle again. He looks to Kara. “_Ieiu_, you’re going to adopt her, right? Then she’ll _really_ be part of the family.”

“Adopt?” Kara repeats, unable to stop herself imagining Cat’s raised eyebrow. “Uhh…” she laughs nervously, tugging at her collar, “why don’t we ask your mom, first? She doesn’t even know Andy exists and it’d be kind of hard to explain…do you have papers, Andy?”

“Jeremiah set me up,” she replies.

“And that’s…”

“My dad,” Alex answers, eyes darting between Andy and Kara. “We kind of already adopted her, though. But, I mean, we sort of made it so she has your name? Officially, I mean.”

“Right,” Kara blinks owlishly, not understanding in the slightest.

“Your Earth name, Kara Lee?” Andy says, tentative, “Jeremiah based it off of that. In my records, I’m Andromeda Lee-Danvers. It’s hyphenated.”

“Oh,” she mutters, tilting her head. “Okay. That’s fine.”

Andy lets out a big gust of breath. “It is?”

“I mean, sure,” Kara says, before looking at her seriously. “Just remember something for me, alright?”

“Yeah?”

Kara smiles, sadness welling in her gut in the same way she knows it will in Andy.

“Don’t forget who you were. Who you are.” She reaches out, drawing a symbol on Andy’s forehead, mimicking actions of years past, when Carter was born and she took him out under the sun. At the motion, Andy sucks in a breath, recognising it.

“_Kara Zor-El_,” she murmurs to her copy. “_Of the House of El. May Rao’s light shine on you forever. May the blood of your ancestors protect and guide you._”

It feels right, doing this amongst a crowd of thousands, surrounded by those she holds dear. Only Cat is missing – something Kara at once regrets deeply. This is important, though. Important to Kara and to Andy, for two girls who remember rituals long gone. Carter and Kal-El watch on and participate, but they are as ignorant as Alex as to their true importance.

Andy closes her eyes.

“_May your life me long and joyous,_” Kara intones, pressing her thumb under Andy’s chin to lift her face up to the sky. “_May you meet those who love you in starlight, when you are gone. You have already been welcomed, Kara Zor-El, but now I remind you where and to whom you belong. The House of El._”

“El Mayara,” say Carter and Kal-El.

“El Mayara,” Andy whispers.

“_We are stronger together and I know, Andy, that you will do extraordinary things one day,_” Kara says to her, watching the girl open her eyes and start to cry. She finishes the rite without a smile. “_May your presence be a gift and a blessing._”

“_Thank-you. Thank-you._”

“_Don’t thank me, Kara Danvers,_” says Kara Lee, clutching Andy tight when she barrels into her torso, pressing a strong kiss to her forehead. Her heart swells with love for a child she barely knows, who belongs amongst the last of her House. She means what she says. She means every word.

Kara hugs Andy harder.

“_You’re right where you belong._”


	4. Cat

_ CatCo Worldwide Media & Co. Tower, National City, Earth; July of 2007 _

It’s nearing the end of the work-day and Cat is exhausted. Half the Board were missing from the meeting this afternoon, ‘ill’ and the air conditioning has been working over-time, trying to keep both her employees and their electronics cool. Cat leans back in her chair, glancing at the clock on her desk. _16:47_. So, at least an hour before Cat can leave, unless a family emergency comes up.

God, Cat _hopes_ there’s a family emergency.

Ruminating over the possibility of letting her reputation take a slide into _nice_ and letting the building off half an hour early, Cat nearly misses how her assistant takes a call. But she doesn’t, because she’s Cat Grant. Annoyance churns in her gut, wondering who’s attempting to steal her precious evening – Kara had promised her a candlelit dinner, while the boys went out to swim on the riverbank.

Beatrice, her newest assistant, nods and puts the call on hold, slipping out from behind her desk to stand in the doorway of her office. “Ms Grant, there was a call from security. Your wife is requesting access to your private elevator.”

“My wife?” Cat sits up, glaring at the poor girl. “My _wife_ is always allowed up.”

“She has unlisted visitors with her, Ms Grant,” Beatrice says, not even blinking at her ferocious expression. Cat has to admit, in the privacy of her head, that Beatrice puts up with her well and even does her job to a high standard.

At her words, however, Cat can’t help but frown. Kara would never bring strangers into her elevator unless they were family – and those ‘family members’ are all on the list. Curious, she nods in agreement, “Let them up.”

“Yes, Ms Grant.”

Beatrice returns to her desk and Cat lounges in her chair, twisting ever so slightly, so her line of sight to the elevator is uninterrupted. It’s not long before the numbers are flickering, going down then up once more, chiming upon arrival. The doors open, admitting Kara, Kal-El, Carter and two strangers…and a dog, who quickly takes all her attention.

A dog.

In _her_ elevator.

“Kara!” She snaps, imagining the germs and _hair_ left in the carpet of her elevator, taking off her sunglasses in a single motion to stare at it. She’s going to be having nightmarish daydreams about it for _weeks_ after it’s cleaned. “Why did you bring a mongrel to my office?”

Kara ignores her, saying hello to nearby personnel who know her, pausing in front of Beatrice’s desk to ask her how she’s doing. Beatrice, the traitor, gladly makes conversation and tells Kara that the restaurant she recommended was a good choice.

“Kara,” Cat says, tapping her nails in warning. Her wife continues to chat to Beatrice, but their sons slide on through, followed by the two strangers – two _girls_, Cat corrects herself. As per usual, Kal-El takes up her attention, whizzing around with the Dog, who yips in excitement, tail wagging so fast it’s a blur. Cat stares in horror.

The Dog is using super-speed, clearly.

“Where in the name of sanity did you find that beast?” she hisses, glancing out to the bullpen. None of her workers have noticed, probably putting it down to Kal-El if they do. He’s a regular sight from all his visits over the years, flying to her balcony and running up and down the stairs when he bothers to get a visitors pass.

“This is Krypto!” Kal-El introduces, before Carter drops down onto her sofa, followed by the red-headed girl. She has to be at least sixteen, twenty at the most. Kal-El continues on to say, “He’s Andy’s dog!”

“And Andy is…” Cat trails off, finally looking properly at the last of their guests. Cat reaches for her glasses, sure she’s hallucinating. But even with her glasses on, it’s quite clear to her that the fifth person in her office is near-identical to her wife.

She waves weakly, biting her lip. “Me,” she says. “I’m Andy. Short for Project Andromeda. Or Andromeda Lee-Danvers.”

“She’s from another universe,” the red-head says, leaning back on the sofa and elbowing Carter when he copies her. She winces when he elbows her back, grunting in pain and alarming Cat, who has never seen her son deliberately hurt someone before outside of a fight or an accident. At the door, Kara turns her attention onto him immediately, short.

“Carter. Gentle.”

Carter looks unusually disappointed and barely regretful at her words. “But I thought…”

“Not here, Carter,” replies Kara, before she walks into the office finally, coming to stand beside the clearly-nervous Andy. Beside each other, the similarities are even more stark. “Balcony, Cat?”

Mechanically, Cat stands, eyes locked on the two of them as they walk towards her balcony. Their sons stay behind with the dog, Krypto and the girl, who has yet to be named. Andy and Kara sit down close together outside, Cat joining them once the door is shut – an impractical measure to stop alien eavesdroppers, but giving them the sense of privacy, all the same. Heat blasts across her face, courtesy of the wind and Cat is glad her balcony is in the shade, for once – she can’t imagine trying to deal with both the glare _and_ this situation.

Once sat down, she starts with, “Another universe, that girl said.”

“Alex,” names Andy, not looking at her.

“Alex,” Cat repeats, meeting Kara’s eyes. Behind Andy, her arm snakes around, a hand looking to be held. Cat obliges her, shifting closer and peering at young Andy. It’s so strange to see her wife in this girl – like Alex, she can’t be older than twenty or younger than sixteen, or fifteen, maybe. She seems a little softer around the edges, though Cat knows not to judge anyone, especially Kara, from just what she can see.

“She’s been here a while,” Kara tells her, patting Andy’s thigh. “Alex and her family have been looking after her, out in Midvale.”

“Midvale? Never heard of it.”

“It’s small,” Andy says, sounding mellow. “It’s about an hour and a half away from National City. Alex and I flew here.”

“It has an airstrip?”

“No, Cat,” Kara wiggles her eyebrows with a grin, “they _flew_. Alex has her own secrets. They even went along the official flight-path, following the roads-”

“Because there are aeroplanes,” Andy finishes, a smile finally tugging at her lip. She glances at Kara. “Have you ever run into one?”

“A fighter jet, yeah,” Kara jokes. Cat rolls her eyes. “Fun fact: the US Military don’t like it when you destroy their property.”

“How did you get away with it?”

“She didn’t,” Cat drawls, remembering this incident clearly. “The DEO sued, calling it an unprovoked attack and her subsequent self-defence. The US lost, when public opinion called for their surrender. Privately, Kara was subject to quite the punishment from Director J’onzz. Lawyers and lawsuits cost money.”

“Huh,” murmurs Andy, clearly ruminating on the thought. Cat glances inside her office. Carter has brought out the lead playing cards and Alex is teaching him a game of some sort – Kal-El is still playing with Krypto, the heathen, kneeling on her pristine carpet and having him roll over.

Kara squeezes her hand, bringing her attention back to them. “Andy and Alex are moving to National City. They have an apartment waiting for them and everything.”

“Oh? So, approaching Kara now was self-preservation?” Cat queries Andy, who flushes. “You would have been caught out, eventually. Everyone knows her face.”

“Well,” Andy hedges, “yes and no. We didn’t mean to meet, but I heard Kal-El’s name across the park. It was coincidence.”

“Alright,” says Cat, still looking at Andy questioningly. “What are your intentions towards my family?”

Her flush deepens, pink turning to red. She’s jittery as she replies, nervous the same way Kara gets.

“Nothing, really. I just wanted to meet you all, see how you reacted to me – that sort of stuff.”

“And it has nothing to do with the current financial crisis and the rising rent figures in National City,” Cat replies in a dry voice. Andy, luckily for her, genuinely seems to have no clue what Cat’s on about, expression clear.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Cat brushes it off, ignoring Kara’s gentle glare. “Are you looking to become friendly with Kara, Andy? My sons?”

“…yes?”

“Is that an answer or a question?”

Resolve forms on her face. “Yes,” she states clearly, saying to her, “I am part of the House of El. My cousin and aunt are both dead in my home universe. I want a family who knows where I am from and understand my pain – is that so selfish to ask?”

An old sympathy flares to life in her chest as Cat says softly, “No, it’s not.”

“Good,” Andy says, stubborn. Kara pats her thigh gently and Cat sees her shoulders droop, tension leaving them. She cringes. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry – I’ll gladly be an aunt-figure to you, if that’s what you wish. Kara could do the same.”

“Not a mother-figure?” Kara questions, a hint of playfulness to her voice – and a hint of sadness. Cat catches the latter and looks at her sharply.

“That’s a conversation for another day,” Cat replies. “For a lead-lined room, in fact.”

Kara both wilts and perks up, nodding in agreement. “Right.”

“Right,” Cat repeats, looking back at Andy. Her stare becomes piercing. “You’ll give me your new address and I’ll speak to your landlord. If you’re anything like Kara, you’re going to need a rather large insurance check for the inevitable breakages. What’s your plan for living expenses?”

“Ah- uh,” Andy’s eyes go wide. “Get- get a job. Jeremiah and Eliza said they’d pay our bills for a year, but not our rent.”

“Good,” Cat says crisply, “You can keep that arrangement, but any surprise expenditures go through us.”

“Cat,” Kara interrupts, asking, “What are you doing?”

Cat raises an eyebrow at her, enunciating clearly, “Do you think I am going to abandon another version of you? No. I am not.” She turns her attention back to Andy. “My only request is that you join us once a month for a family activity.”

“O-okay,” Andy says, blush returning and a radiant smile appearing. “I’d love to.”

“Good,” Cat replies, straightening her back. “Now, is there anything else we should be worried about? Enemies from another universe? Potential children of yours?”

“_Cat,_” Kara groans, hand pressing to her face.

“You brought that on her yourself,” Cat reminds her, getting another groan of embarrassment from her wife before Andy shakes her head wildly.

“No – no children,” she says nervously. “Not yet, anyway.”

Kara then decides to elbow Andy. “You’re telling her about the internship.”

“Internship?”

Andy scowls at Kara, still blushing. Her arms cross over her chest and Kara lets go of Cat’s hand to wrap the arm around her shoulders instead, smiling at her.

“Yeah, the _internship_. Go on, tell her your genius plan.”

“Hate you.”

“Don’t. Go on – _internship._”

Cat purses her lips, an idea flowering to life in her mind. “Am I going to like this, Andromeda?”

“_No,_” she mutters, wincing as she tells her the truth. “I have an internship at CatCo, starting January. I was going to see if I could meet you, one time and contact Kara through you.”

_Ah,_ Cat thinks, narrowing her eyes. _That would not have gone well for Kara._

Andy seems to have realised this at one point, probably when she told Kara. Her wife squeezes her arm around Andy’s shoulders, pressing a kiss to her head.

“You still have the internship,” she reminds her cheerfully. “And you got it on your own merit. Now, you just have to deal with the fact that you’re going to have to work twice as hard, so people don’t think Cat was favouring you.”

Immediately, Cat scoffs. “_Favouring you_, ugh. I abhor that sort of behaviour.”

“I know,” Kara chimes in obnoxiously. Cat glares at her.

Her wife – _honestly_.


End file.
